Letter: Wasn’t Mexico paying for wall?

Around 800,000 American families are being held hostage. The culprit responsible is not a foreign terrorist organization or a criminal enterprise, it is our president, Donald J. Trump.

Embarrassed at his inability to build a border wall, he has shut down the government and threatens not to reopen it until Congress agrees to pay the ransom of $5.7 billion to build a wall that he promised Mexico would pay for.

For two years the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress as well as the executive branch and President Trump made no serious effort to fulfill his promise. Now, with the Democrats in control of the House, he has decided that we are in the midst of a national emergency that is so critical that he is compelled to shut down the Federal Government.

Among the 800,000 government employees who are being forced to work without pay are border patrol agents, airport security screeners, and Coast Guardsmen who protect us from the very threats that the president claims are at a crisis level. When asked how these citizens will be able to make ends meet without pay, the president said they will have to “make adjustments.” Easier said than done when you are living from paycheck to paycheck.

What’s next?

Most likely President Trump will take unilateral action and declare a national emergency. He will bypass Congress and take money allocated to the military to build his wall. Of course this action is unconstitutional and will undoubtably end up in the federal courts. All of this to build a wall that Mexico was going to pay for.